Bad midterm progress

I’m angry, both with myself for turning in a substandard product and, irrationally, with things external to myself, some quasi-legit, some totally ill-legit. 5.5/10 on my project abstract for transportation & land use. Truth be told, it deserved that, and was written and turned in at the last minute. (I was 20 minutes late to a 75 minute class, and it was still warm from the printing). I can plead a few things here, 1) ass surgery & pain meds. That’s quasi-legit. I was awake enough to play board & video games, cook meals, read intricate sci-fi plots, and generally fart around, hence the “quasi”. 2) unreasonable instructor expectations. He asked for a fucking map on my abstract. Yeah, it’s a very spatial course, and I’m doing a very spatial project. But this is an _abstract_. None of our example abstracts had a map. None had charts. None had tables. A small minority had bullet points. And he asked for a map. If I had the fucking map, the project would be mostly done by now. I doubt the lack of map detracted nearly as much as the vagueness of my data source references. If I’d bother to do assignments more than 24 hours in advance, maybe my life wouldn’t suck so much.

Those are the big ones. Grr. Hateselfhateteacher.

It’d probably be more productive to view this as constructive criticism. That is, after all, the goal of a checkpoint, to provide constructive criticism, and there is much to provide. Maybe tomorrow I’ll be loving life more. Let me finish my paper on Pittsburgh’s economy over the past 30+ years and we’ll talk.

GAO interview details

So, as it turns out I can either a) fly myself out to DC or b) arrange a teleconference. Upon learning I’d be funding this trip myself I said I’d like to arrange the teleconference, but it turns out that a flight for next weekend would be a mere $280. Anyone near the Metro willing to suffer a lowly polwonk wannabe on their couch next weekend (march 17-20)? =)

edit: The interview will be friday morning (3/18).

Here’s my flight info:

woohoo!

Okay, all my eggs in one basket, not too smart, I know it. But the GAO sent me the “we want to interview you” email. Washington, DC. Physical Infrastructure group. A little part of me is following an old pattern or maybe just wanting to follow it. Be excited. Be scared. Want to hide behind a bush and poke the offer with a stick. Want to grab it, run off to a corner and keep it all for myself…

But that’s not really how I feel anymore. Motorola is part of my past. Other people’s present and future, but not mine. This is an interview offer, and unless I act in ways I am unlikely to act, I’ll probably get a job offer out of it. The golden ball is not yet mine. Should I get the golden ball, it’s not like game over, quest completed, world saved. It’s more like new game starting. And an opportunity to discover how much I’ll like it.

Still. Woohoo! =)

Constantine and the Furies

I saw Constantine last night. It was a pretty good movie, despite the reviews. Definitely an action movie, and it has the judeo-christian portion of the sandman mythology down pretty well, at least. I was impressed that Keanu’s acting is continuing to improve; perhaps on his deathbed he’ll actually be a good actor.

Before I properly critique the movie, I want to be at least marginally aware of the Hellblazer series. My only prior exposure to the character of John Constantine occurred through Sandman and the Books of Magic. What seemed to be missing from the movie version of John Constantine was the continuous stream of understated, dark, ironic humor. You can tell when the comic book character is deeply upset because he stops joking. Not so in the movie. An impression born out by the first couple of stories in the initial Hellblazer graphic novel I purchased and read. Also, Hellblazer seems to be one of the denser series. There was no way I was going to make it through the entire graphic novel in one sitting, unlike, say, Bone, no criticism of either implied.

But, while I was there, I saw another DC Vertigo piece, The Furies. It’s a story about what happens to Lyta Hall after she comes back to her life, when her son is irrevocably gone and her vengence complete at the end of the Sandman series. Surprisingly, I liked it. Having just watched Constantine, I was a little tired of the “gains insight by going to hell and back” dramatic meme, but I suppose that’s part of the Monomyth, eh? Still, it was good. Greek mythology, cameos by two of the Endless, even if not my favorites, and a glimpse of Dream 2.0 that seems consistent with the Sandman series. The fallibility of humanity and superhumanity, alongside the potential for personal growth and the realization of such. Tragedy and victory. Of such things are good stories made.

I just wish I got half the references made in DC Vertigo stuff. But no man is an omnibus for human literary efforts, or rather, that is not my main ambition in life. =)